"THE MUSIC IS BEIN` MADE BY PEOPLE, NOT BY GEAR THEY`RE USING, the tone is in player`s hands, not in the instrument"
Right on. Copying someone's sound is a forlorn hope 99% of the time, because unless you're fortuitously possessed of some similarity to the artist you're aiming to emulate, it's going to sound different. You can't guarantee that you'll nail the human element. There's some great videos of some guys playing on Brian's guitar at a Red Special meetup, and most of it sounds utterly awful. Nothing wrong with the gear - but put a different person there, and you will get a different sound.
thomasquinn 32989 · Member since
Sir GH wrote: There's tonnes of originality. Thousands of artists in this world are trying to further the evolution of music. Not everyone is required to. Jumping all over that group of musicians isn't going to accomplish anything. =========
I'm not denying that there's originality. What I'm saying is that 1) it is not coming from those who are trying to copy someone else's sound, in any technical sense of the word, and 2) it is not often a factor in popular music, which tends to be a reflection of original, innovative music that came before. I don't see it as "jumping all over" a group of musicians, I see it as pointing out a fallacy in one's playing: the only thing you need to do to turn a sound into a cliché is hear it often. In an age where recorded music exists, plentifully, for the first time in human history (and let's not forget that most people by far didn't have access to more than a precious few records before the 1950s (US & Canada) and 1960s (Europe)), the risk of becoming a cliché by too close a reliance on another player's style is far greater than it used to be.
tomchristie22 · Member since
You can't build up your own tone and playing style without direct influence from other significant musicians, it's the same with everything. And who better to learn from than May?
TobyBarnett · Member since
Ok, so I'm new here as well...
Going back to czerni4k 's original post, maybe I can help you out/offer my thoughts on the guitar tone in 'A Kind of Magic' (I've always wondered about this tone as well -the reason for me finding this post!)
I had a go at recreating the sound and, although it's not exactly like it, it's more or less in the ball park. Here's the link...
To try and get this guitar sound, I just used what's available to me atm - fender strat + guitar rig 4 software. (I do have a red special/vox/treble booster, just not with me!)
Guitar settings - neck p/up, tone about 50% volume backed off a little bit.
Amp settings - marshall simulation w/very light overdrive and the treble rolled off a bit, little bit of chorus and delay and quite a bit of reverb.
I played the chords with fingers rather than a pick - sounds less harsh and there is no pick raking across strings, just sounds altogether smoother.
My strat trem is floating, so some slight upward vibrato with the bar, gets it sounding more May-like!
Pulling the strings fairly hard, gets the initial attack on the chords more overdriven, just for a moment - the main sound remains pretty clean/smooth though.
The chord changes also sound really subtle - I used to think Brian was somehow bending the whole chord shape up from the A to D chord!..or that it was a multitracked 3-part harmony. It's just really hard to hear the transition between the 2 chords.
Can't really think of anything else to add. All of this is just an opinion and I could be wayy off! Basically just try using fingers instead of a pick/sixpence and carefully adjust the tone/volume on the guitar, and dont use too much overdrive. Should get you kind of close.
Nice job at getting the AKOM tone VERY close with a Strat. Proves that it's almost entirely in the fingers and not the gear.
john bodega · Member since
Cool example, chap! The more I think on it, the more I'm starting to wonder if the sublime nature of some of the Magic stuff lies more in some very particular 'sotto voce' playing on Brian's part. It's true that the guitar sound is being treated different somehow (it really is swimming and swirling through a lot of effects, and for the majority of his career Brian was less about reverbs and more about mic placements), but it really would seem to be as much about the playing.
I might add - you're a lot closer on the Jeff Beck video you did and that is by no means a criticism. You nailed that one; especially that one bit where it sounds like slide and it ain't. I've always admired that the most about Jeff Beck. It's one thing to learn his whammy discipline, but to make it sound like something else is a leap. Good job.
